It's here!!!!!!!!!!

I received some wonderful Royal Mail on Thursday, from Andrea over at Welsh Quilter. It is my Four Seasons Winter Swap Quilt. Oh my goodness, Andrea it is the cutest thing that I have ever seen. It is soooo me! Did you hear my squeals all the way across the ocean? My hubby and son were there watching me open it and they were a little excited too. My hubby was very impressed, as was I, that it is hand quilted. Oh, and the little pearl necklace on Mrs. Frosty, how cute is that!!! Mr. Frosty's bow tie is so dashing. I LOVE it!!!!! It is now hanging in my sewing room where I can look at it every day and it is not coming down when winter is over!! :)


It came all wrapped up in this beautiful fabric. Which is quite serendipity in and of itself, because I am in the process of collecting purple and cream fabrics to make a quilt. In fact, Paula over at Latte Quilts is nice enough to help me in collecting some of these fabrics. So Andrea, you were quite in tune with me.

You'll notice the chocolate had to be tested before the photo was taken. Can I just say it was one of the best chocolate bars that I have ever eaten. You will notice the use of past tense wording, that it because it is now all gone. I did have some help from my family though. I just walked a couple extra miles on the ol' treadmill and didn't feel guilty at all about eating it!

The swap thing has been one of the most fun things. I will definitely be signing up for more in the future!!!!

Thanks again, Andrea!!!!!

Two Finishes!

I finished the wall hanging from the Kim Deihl class that I took. This is from her "Simple Seasons" book. I wanted to get it finished to enjoy for this Halloween, so I did some machine stippling in the background and I did the big stitch hand quilting in the details. I really like it! My fingers are a little bit sore from the hand quilting. For some reason I hate thimbles, they seem awkward to me. But, if I do much hand quilting I am going to have to get used to them.

What is your favorite thimble?

As you can see in the picture I used clothespins to hang it up. Does anyone have any suggestions as to how I can hang quilts on this little shelf? The rail is attached to the sides, so it doesn't slide in and out. If I had a bigger quilt, with less detail, I could just drape it over the rail, but with this kind I am not sure what would be the best way to attach it. I am open to any ideas and suggestions. I really like the shelf and want to keep using it.


I made up this scrub top for Kristy (our RN daughter) last night. This is some of the fabric I bought on the shop hop. She wants me to make her a scrub top for each holiday. They sew up really fast! I am just not into sewing clothes as much as I used to be, so I kind of have to force myself to sit down and make them.



Hope that you all have a wonderful weekend!

Hugs&Stitches, Julia

Happy Fall Y'all!

I love fall! It could be this season for about 6 months of the year and I would be perfectly happy. I love the weather, the smells, the foods, the cozy feeling in my home, the time to quilt, the warm, earthy colors, I just love it all! I like decorating my home to fit the season. My daughter wanted to learn how to do stitchery this past summer. So we did a quick internet search for some stitchery patterns, dug out my old box of embroidery floss and the fun began! We have made several, but this is the only one that I have made into a completed project, so far.

I really enjoy doing them, nice to do some hand work once in awhile. We did a little tea-staining on these. Does anyone have any tips for tea-staining? I would like mine to be a little more splotchy, darker and a little more vintage looking. Couldn't seem to come up with the exact look that I was going for.


This just makes me smile. I like "cutesy" Halloween, not "evil" Halloween. This just fits the bill for "cutesy" in my book. This was a lot of fun to make. I did some freehand meandering loops for the quilting and I tried to outline the applique. That is not easy! I will definitely have to practice that some more. :~)

This table runner is another little bit of quilty, cutsey for Halloween. This picture is not real good, the colors are brighter and richer. A photographer I am not. :~)

I am getting ready to go on my first quilt retreat next week! YAY!!! I am so excited! Three days with 8 friends, doing nothing but sewing, laughing, eating and relaxing! I have big plans to get lots done. We shall see if that happens. Either way it will be a blast!

Hugs&Stitches, Jul♥a

Summer Vacation

Wow!! It has been awhile since I have posted. We went on vacation with my Sis and her family, the first week of August. We always go to Bear Lake, Idaho. We go swimming, play on the sandy beach and just relax. It has been a tradition now for about 15 years.
This year we had an interesting start to the trip, about 50 miles from home, my sister's brand new truck broke down. So my niece's DH had to turn around and go get their truck to pull the camper with. It was a long, hot, wait along side the road, waiting for the tow truck. But after about 2 hours we were back on our way. Nothing can stop us!!



My DS7, caught a little lizard. That was one excited little boy!! I talked him into letting it go, so he and the other 5 children there, decided that they wanted to build a trap and catch some more just for sport. It sure kept them busy every time we came back up to camp. All of this sage brush was gathered and piled up, with some bugs under it all to attract the lizards. No one had the heart to tell them that the bugs would just crawl away. Some future engineers in the group maybe???? LOL This is my son and my 2 year old grandson in the pic.












Most every afternoon there is a little thunder storm that rolls down out of the mountains and across the lake, isn't Mother Nature beautiful!!!









My BIL and niece's husband are the only men in a group of 4 women and 7 children, they take really good care of us, doing all of the cooking, etc!! It is truly a vacation for all of the women. Of course, we do offer to do the clean up after the meals, don't want them to get tired and quit on us. LOL My daughter nick named them the "Man Slaves". This is our view as we ate every day. All in all we had a great week!! Now it is back to our regularly scheduled life. School starts next week, so LET THE QUILTING BEGIN!!!!!!!

My Daughter, My Friend

I made this for my daughter's birthday. She truly is a wonderful friend. How blessed I was the day that she was born. I will be forever in debt to my Father in Heaven for sending this angel to me. What a gift she is!


And as beautiful on the outside as she is on the inside!

I am busy in Santa's workshop/sewing room. I am making 4 quilts for gifts. Plus some other fun holiday projects I would like to get done. There might be a few late nights in my future. But, I don't mind, stitching away for those I love is one of my favorite things to do! :~)

Hugs&Stitches, Jul♥a

Hi!

I am totally new at this. But, I think that I shall give it a try. Mostly for journaling purposes.
I am not very good with words, but maybe this will help to expand and improve in that area.

I will share a little tidbits of my life and lots about my quilting projects.
I am fairly new to quilting, but not to sewing. I have been sewing garments and home dec for about 30 years. WOW, when did I get to be that old!!! LOL I have been quilting for about 1 1/2 years. I LOVE it!!!!!! In fact, I hardly ever do any garment sewing now.

I will make this first post short. I hope that I can figure out how to add pictures and I will then post some of my projects, current and finished.

Easter/Spring Flimsy

I am feeling back to normal, whatever normal is. hehe :o)
I was able to finish my Easter/Spring flimsy. I still need to quilt it. I am not sure if I will hang it on the wall or put it on my dining room table. I have my DMIL's old treadle sewing machine in my dining room, I might put it on their too. I will just have to finish it and see where I like it the best.
Let me just say that this was some of the yummiest fabric that I have ever used. It is so soft and the hand is fantastic!!!
I am now working on another one with some applique/machine embroidery. I will show pics of it when I get a little further along.

I have been able to stay in my sewing room the past 2 days, YIPPEEE!!! I wish everyday could be like yesterday and today. But, if it was then I don't think that I would appreciate it as much. I think we need both good and bad in our lives to become all that we can be.


Is this not just the cutest little pattern that you have ever seen? Oh my goodness, it just makes me smile! :o) It is a Schnibbles from Rosie's Quilt Company. This is the first one that I have bought and I wasn't expecting it to be so tiny. I love it!! I want to collect them all just because they are tiny!!!! It measures about 4x6 inches. (the pattern itself not the quilt that you make from it, the quilt is 33x33)

Hugs & Stitches, Julia

Gardening Adventure

It is a lovely day here today, not to hot and just a slight little breeze. I decided that I had better go out and do some work on my gardens, both veggie and flower. My tomatoes and squash are growing like crazy. I read somewhere that you should trim some of the leaves off of your tomato plants to let the light into the center of them. I have never done this before but I decided to give it a try this year. I think that I might have planted things a little to close. I always have a hard time with that. They are so small when I plant them in the spring, it seems that I have left plenty of room, but as you can see, I didn't!
After trimming them and pulling a few weeds, I went over to my flower garden. I had to trim the lower branches off of these trees. See that irrigation ditch there, well I fell in it! I just about lost my favorite comfy flip flops to the sucking mud pit. After providing a good laugh for everyone, I was getting ready to clean my feet with the hose and I thought, "No, I must take a picture and write about my adventure on my blog!" :)
So, there you have it. Go ahead you might as well join in on the laughter too!!!

We will be eating fresh yummy radishes for dinner tonight! I love home grown food. Next year we are going to make our garden bigger and better. We have so much land that we need to make better use of it.

Hugs & Stitches, Julia